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Interview with Game Designer Kyle Vallee

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Kyle “Kander” Vallée who is one of the game designers of the Rise of Kunark expansion to EverQuest 2; have been interviewed by EverQuest 2 vault.

Lady Scarlet: What do you feel has been the biggest project you have worked on and what made it so Difficult/Large of a project?

Kander: Absolutely hands down it was Jarsath Wastes. I was a relatively new designer when this was handed to me and I was a little overwhelmed at first but very excited. I really wanted to bring the nostalgia of EQ’s Overthere and Skyfire Mountains without choking people to death with it. One of my major goals was to make it a fun zone, challenging but at the same time had new and interesting features. So I went to work on it and when I was relatively close to being done I enlisted a lot of people to play in the zone and send feedback. I think I had 15 people in my Friends and Family Beta plus there were a few individuals here at work, from other departments, that really gave me a lot of good solid feedback! I enlisted a few guilds into sending me feedback as well! I think Clan of Shadows, on Befallen, sent me the equivalent of 10 pages of feedback during the beta! =)

Lady Scarlet: In regards to the Language quests in Kunark how did the concept of Shorty come to you... Were you at lunch one day eating a Peanut butter and Jelly Sandwich and just felt "It would be cool to have a frog grow these on a farm!"

Kander: The language quests were given to me and basically Lyndro said “Do three language quests for Rise of Kunark, but try to do something that is different”. Shorty was inspired by Looney Tunes Cartoons. I grew up on Bugs Bunny almost exclusively. I just basically wanted him to ramble and wanted it to be a little silly with a touch of loony. So I opened a word document and typed the first 10 things that came to mind. That just happened to be one of them. When I was done I thought of how evil it would be to make someone have to keep an eye on this annoying little guy for a while! I do plan on finding a way to get the sandwich farm in to game some day! Maybe in a dream sequence…With Sandwich Bushes!!!